


Tears are Heaven’s Rain

by rosewiththorns



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Cuddling, Detroit Red Wings, Discipline, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Sexual Submission, Pranks, Pressure, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 02:45:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7024075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosewiththorns/pseuds/rosewiththorns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A prank can't take away Gus' pain but Nik can. Written per reader request.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tears are Heaven’s Rain

Tears are Heaven’s Rain

When he returned from his post-practice shower and sat down in his stall, Nik felt as if he had mistaken a porcupine for a chair, and his backside had paid the price in pricks. Reflexively, he shot upright, craning his neck around to discover that there was no porcupine but there were a hundred tiny thumbtacks. 

Nik’s curses were drowned out by the sound of Gus’ laughter ringing off the walls. Gus hadn’t laughed since Hank’s back betrayed him at the Olympics, and it would have been a pleasant noise to hear after all this time if it hadn’t sounded more malicious than amused. 

“Did you do this, Gus?” demanded Nik tersely, jabbing a finger at the thumbtacks that had torn into his rump. 

“What if I did?” Gus snickered, and Nik vowed that Gus would soon have the snideness spanked out of him but first the impertinent rookie had a cleaning chore ahead of him. 

“If you did, you can pick up all the tacks and throw them in the trash,” ordered Nik, his stern tone and piercing gaze communicating more effectively than words that it would be the height of imprudence for Gus to disobey or dawdle. 

As Gus shuffled past him to scoop up the tacks and toss them in the garbage, Nik delivered a swift, stinging swat to Gus’ hindquarters. Normally even a single smack would draw several sniffles from Gus, who was very sensitive to signs of disapproval, craved affection, and could be reduced to tears with an ease that elicited teasing from teammates, but this time Gus’ only reaction to the reproving slap was to glare over his shoulder at Nik as he bent to brush the tacks into his palm. 

The second that Gus had dropped the tacks into the trash, Nik seized his arm and dragged him out of the locker room down the hallway to a deserted meeting room. Slipping into a seat and tugging an oddly still Gus (usually Gus squirmed whenever he sensed that a spanking was in his immediate future, so having him submit to a spanking felt unnatural), Nik scolded as he slid Gus’ gym shorts down to his kneecaps, revealing moss-green briefs, “Putting tacks on my locker was disrespectful and a misguided attempt at a joke, kid, if that was intended to be funny.” 

“It’s not funny to you because you have no sense of humor.” Gus snorted. 

Irked by Gus’ contentious attitude when being draped over Nik’s lap, awaiting an impending spanking should have made him more humble and less cantankerous, Nik yanked down Gus’ briefs to ensure that Gus’ pale behind would experience the full effects of Nik’s disapproval, Nik observed crisply, “We’ll see how loud your laughing when your ass is the butt of the joke.” 

With that Nik brought his hand down hard on the center of Gus’ rump. Gus sucked in a breath through his teeth with a faint hiss but was otherwise quiet as Nik blazed a trail down his rear, altering cheeks, until he reached Gus’ sit-spots which he targeted with blistering swats. 

Gazing at Gus’ reddening backside, Nik frowned, because Gus should have been crying ,or at least should have been showing some indication of pain rather than laying limp as a rag doll across Nik’s knees. Nik hadn’t intended to give Gus a prolonged spanking for the prank, yet he did want to bring Gus to tears not to punish him for his mischievous behavior but rather to force him to express the emotions that he had kept trapped inside him since Hank had pulled out of the Olympics. Gus needed release—Mamma always said that tears were God’s soap, washing the hurt away—because only after he broke could Nik put him back together again and only after he cried could Nik comfort him. 

Desperate to drive Gus to tears since he would much prefer to cuddle than to spank, Nik flicked his wrist to increase the power behind each smack as he traveled back up Gus’ bottom, rekindling flames that were already burning crimson. The first crack in Gus’ stoic demeanor came with a gasp that quickly grew into a hitched, uneven rhythm, which gradually morphed into whimpers and then finally into wails as heart-wrenching as the keening of a mother elephant who had lost her calf. 

“Sorry, Nik,” Gus choked out between sobs as Nik rubbed calming circles between his shoulder blades. “I promise I won’t ever prank you like that again.” 

“I know you won’t.” Nik patted Gus’ heaving back while he gently restored Gus’ shorts and briefs to their original locations, clucking his tongue in sympathy as he heard Gus groan at the abrasive sensation of fabric making contact with scorched skin. Shifting Gus into a sitting position on his lap, he combed through Gus’ hair, damp from the shower and fresh with the scent of shampoo, and suggested in a voice as delicate as his touch, “Why don’t you tell me what’s been bothering you all week, huh?” 

“I was Hank’s roommate in the Olympics.” Gus buried his face in Nik’s shirt, as Nik massaged the nape of his neck. “He was hurting so much all the time, and I never thought he could be in pain like that, you know. I pictured him as invulnerable and able to overcome anything, but the pain was beating him no matter how hard he fought.” 

“The pain wasn’t beating him, not if he was fighting it,” corrected Nik softly, sweeping the hair away from Gus’ forehead so he could brush his lips across it in a kiss almost like a benediction. “If you’re fighting the pain, you aren’t letting it overcome you.” 

“I can’t deal with him being out.” Gus’ whisper was so hushed that Nik had to strain his ears to hear it. “It puts so much pressure on me to carry the team, and I’m afraid I’m not up to the task.” 

“It’s not your job to carry the team.” Nik squeezed Gus’ shaking shoulders. “It’s just your job to carry your own weight and try to stay out of trouble, scamp.” 

“If I stayed out of trouble,” Gus pointed out with the shadow of a sly smile, “I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a rookie.”


End file.
